Three Possible Futures You Can Avoid by Moving to Electronic Forms

The world of business is changing fast: companies adopting new technologies are gaining an edge. Traditional paperwork is getting replaced by electronic forms. Not only are forms going digital, but also mobile. Will your business be a frontrunner? Or will you get left in the dust? Here’s what could happen if you don’t adapt:

Scenario One: You lose or damage forms.

Keeping track of paperwork is no easy task. Not only is paper prone to ripping and staining, it can easily slip down a crack between seats or slide under a cabinet. This leads to lost time filling out a form all over again, or losing information altogether.

How many invoices did you not send because the paperwork was lost? How many forms did you give up on because you couldn’t read the writing due to stains or damage? Each of those costs your business dearly!

Scenario Two: You waste your time and money on data entry and reentry.

To get an idea of the cost of data entry, let’s look at a common scenario. Someone out in the field fills out a few forms. They bring their stack (hopefully rip- and stain-free) back to the office. There, a poor soul has to deal with typing it all into a computer. Do you have an entire employee devoted to data entry? That’s at least $20,000 a year just to enter data a second time.

More than money, this process also takes time. As this person pores over the documents, illegible handwriting, incomplete and blank fields slow things down. This allows for inaccurate data to get entered. And we all know the headaches that causes down the line.

With paperwork like this, it's easy to lose important information (Aaron Logan, Source)

Whereas an electronic form only requires information to be entered once, paper forms add an unnecessary step. Saving you time and money and headaches, wouldn’t you rather that future?

Scenario Three: You lose out to your competitors.

As your competition adopts electronic forms, they will save time and money. Their work will become much more efficient and accurate, allowing them to complete more tasks in the same period of time. They’ll save on the recurring costs of paper and printing in favor of a much more favorable investment in a smartphone or tablet. They can even use their workforce more effectively now that the poor data reentry soul can focus on other work in the office.

If you don’t adapt? We’ll…it will become harder and harder to compete.

With electronic forms, there are no physical forms to lose or damage. There is no need for data reentry, since it’s all saved and backed up the first time. Best of all, you’ll be the one blowing your competitors out of the water with your improved processes.